NIH Director’s Blog, 10 November 2015 In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk about…

Measuring What Matters: Development of Standard HIV Core Indicators Across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Publichealthreports: 7/23/13

As noted by public health leaders, efforts to define and monitor quality in systems that deliver population health services have lagged behind comparable efforts in systems that deliver clinical health services.1 One potential reason for this disparity is the observation that the aims of medical care are arguably more apparent—and certainly more immediate—than those of public health, focusing on the well-being of individuals rather than on the health of entire populations. Moreover, while quality improvement is predicated upon the ability to measure and monitor inputs and outputs in a consistent way,2 data collected by various public health systems are often not standardized, with inconsistent case definitions, specifications, and time frames.3,4 Hence, it is difficult to analyze data across multiple public health systems to improve the coordination of prevention services, intervention effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness.5 Read more